Scene Analysis
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYOjY7JJDBI Synopsis: This scene happens after Carl finally realizes where Frank is hiding. it takes place in Montrichard, France as Carl finally confronts Frank face to face and arrests him. Characters: The only two characters in this scene, aside from the police at the end, are Carl (Tom Hanks ) and Frank (Leonardo DiCaprio ). Carl has the high status as he is going to arrest Frank. He is finally about to win the game of cat and mouse and Frank is at the end of his run. Throughout the movie, Carl has unsuccessfully tried to corner Frank and he finally has him where he wants him. He is able to convince Carl to come with him, and he realizes his purpose of capturing Frank. It is interesting to see that Frank is happy to see Carl. He leads a life at this point where he constantly moves to evade the law so the only person consistently in his life is Carl. He is happy to see the man about to arrest him because he is lonely. Setting: This scene occurs in Montrichard, France inside a printing workshop that serves as the center of Frank's check forging operation. Spielberg's choice to have this pivotal scene in Montrichard helps connect the audience to Frank's struggles. Frank is motivated to lead a life of crime in part to bring his parents back together. Frank's mother (Nathalie Baye) leaves his father (Christopher Walken) after the family business fails and Frank thinks he can get them back together if he can secure his father financially. Frank is at the end of his run in this scene and his inner conflict has reached its boiling point accordingly. The setting of Montrichard helps viewers connect Frank's external actions of check forging to his internal struggle with his parent's divorce by physically bringing them together. Mise-en-Scene: Spielberg’s visual storytelling can be seen in the instance where Carl hits the stop button on the printing press. Forged checks start flying everywhere as Frank turns to Carl and exclaims “Merry Christmas!”. The checks are falling all around Frank like snow when he mentions Christmas. This small detail seems innocuous, but it helps subconsciously highlight in the viewer’s mind the Christmas motif the film employs. Camera Work: The previous scene of the movie consists of Carl and his partners realizing where Frank has gone to hide. The audience is seeing the film through Carl’s point of view at that point. Appropriately, the camera is positioned behind Carl’s shoulder in the beginning of the scene. This helps serve as a transition between the scene where Carl is prominently featured and this scene in which Carl and Frank are equally featured. It makes the audience feel as though they followed Carl to Frank’s hideout. Sound and Music: In the beginning of the scene, Carl passes a church. The people inside the church are singing "Oh Come All Ye Faithful" in French. This signals that is Christmas before that fact is ever implicitly stated. There is no more music until Carl and Frank come back outside. When inside, there are not a lot of different sounds. This helps to not distract from the conversation. Even though the audience cannot see the size of the room, the voices echo which signals they are in a large open space. At the end of the scene, they step into the street to the sound of the church people singing. This is quickly interrupted by the screeching of police sirens.